Stuttgart Tram Museum

Stuttgarter StrassenbahnmuseumBad Canstatt, Stuttgart, Germany

ABOVE: Meter-gauge trams in a former
streetcar depot at Bad Canstatt, which was built in 1929 and is being converted
into new quarters for the Stuttgart Tram Museum..

December, 2008:The Stuttgart Tram Museum is currently closed for
renovation but is scheduled to reopen in spring, 2009. In the meantime, the
museum continues to run excursions on vintage streetcars. See
page 2 for more
information.

By Durant Imboden

Stuttgart
and Strassenbahn share more than an initial consonant: Stuttgart was the
first German city with a streetcar network, thanks to the introduction of
horsedrawn trolleys in 1868. A cogwheel railway opened in 1884, and in 1891,
Stuttgart followed Berlin and Hamburg by introducing the third electric tram
system in Germany. Since then, the city's Strassenbahn network has
continued to flourish, to the point where the entire meter-gauge system was
replaced by a modern standard-gauge network in December, 2007. (Stuttgart's
willingness to invest in public transit is all the more impressive for taking
place in the headquarters city of two car companies.)

Stuttgart
is a city that takes pride in its industrial history, and the
Stuttgart Strassenbahnmuseum has an
extensive collection of trams and
related objects that date back 140 years.

The Strassenbahnmuseum works closely with the local
SSB transit authority, which provides the
museum with 3,000 square meters of exhibition space at a former streetcar depot
in the Stuttgart suburb of Bad Canstatt. The museum has more than 60 restored trams
and other vehicles, and it runs excursions on meter-gauge tracks that have been
laid between the city's new standard-gauge tram lines.

If you live outside the EU,
a tax-free
tourist car lease can be cheaper than renting
for visits of 21+ days. Minimum driver
age is 18, there' s no upper age limit, and rates include insurance. To compare vehicles and
rates, see: